Designing Cognitively Convivial Physics for Dynamic Visual Information Substrates

Rethinking Interaction: From Instrumental Interaction to Human-Computer Partnerships. ACM CHI, 2018


Abstract

The historical moment in time when people worked in front of a single computer has passed. Computers are now ubiquitous and are being embedded in virtually every new system, with the internet providing connection to ever-expanding information resources with previously unimaginable computational power. Yet with all the increases in capacity, speed, and connectivity, information-based activities too often remain difficult, awkward, and frustrating. Even after six decades of design evolution there is little of the naturalness and contextual sensitivity needed for convivial interaction with information in the myriad areas now intertwined with computers. We propose a dynamic visual information substrate designed to radically ease information-based tasks by operating in accordance with cognitively motivated physics sensitive to tasks, personal and group interaction histories, and context.